Track is in many ways an individual sport, but you can always find Darion Zimmerman encouraging his teammates at practice. When he hears them say they can’t make a certain time, or when he hears two words he tries to never utter to himself — “I can’t” — he walks over and offers a different perspective.

You can hit these times, Zimmerman will often say. Just one more rep. I’ve done it before, you can do it.

Zimmerman speaks with authority as he holds the Big West’s top mark in the 200-meters (21.12), and is a favorite to win the event at the Big West Championships in May.

“He can lead us to the championship in the 400 and 200,” said Marques Barosso, CSUF assistant coach for sprinters, hurdlers and relays. “He’s been holding the team down for the two years he’s been here. He’s been a good leader for us… He just motivates people.”

That’s because track has never been an individual pursuit for the senior sprinter. The part of races he looks forward to most, ironically, is when they’re over. That’s when he can embrace those who have helped him fly across the track since he was 5 years old.

“I get to talk to my family, tell them about it,” Zimmerman said. “That’s the best part. Having your family be proud of you.”

That is both a feeling of joy and pain for Zimmerman, a hook that has pierced his heart since Dec. 15. That’s when his uncle, Juju Beard, died of prostate cancer.

Dealing with the grief, Zimmerman didn’t want to run this season. He didn’t think he could.

Beard never doubted his talent, even if others did. Growing up, Zimmerman wasn’t a fast kid in any sense. He played soccer, first, a forward, for five years. He was faster than those kids, but much slower than the kids on the track when Beard introduced him to the sport.

“He wasn’t your star 400-m or any type of runner. He was just a participant,” said Latasha Rush, his mother. “But with hard work, his love for the sport, and the help of his uncle, he began to excel.”

Beard, who had finished his football career at the University of Utah, believed most in his potential. He cheered him on, regardless of how fast or slow he ran a race. He truly attended the races to see him, not to see his times.

The two would sit in the living room and watch tapes of Olympic track athletes, breaking down each movement, with Zimmerman asking question after question. His uncle taught him when to pick up the pace, especially in the 400-m, which Zimmerman would thrive in by the time he made varsity at Oxnard High School as a sophomore.

Zimmerman said Beard’s gift of a squat rack that sophomore year helped him become more athletic, and in turn, faster (and, excel in football, as Zimmerman played corner for the football team).

The two remained close as Zimmerman competed for Weber State for his first two seasons before transferring to Fullerton.

He won the 400-m at the Big West Conference Championships in 2016 with a time of 47.46, becoming the first Titan to win the title since 2007.

With an intense weight-lifting regimen, he began to become more consistent with his times, and was primed for a stellar senior season this year.

But when Beard died, Zimmerman’s legs didn’t feel like moving anymore. He’d travel back and forth between his family’s home in Oxnard and Fullerton, hoping to leave his pain on the freeways he traveled on.

“It’s been so hard for him because his uncle has basically been his father figure and mentor and coach,” Rush said. “And now, with his senior season, he’s lost that.”

But Zimmerman realized Beard wouldn’t have wanted him to quit track. He drew strength from the life his uncle lived: a mentor and coach to many, a pillar of positivity in the Oxnard community.

“It motivated me,” Zimmeran said. “He wanted me to do the extra things, and now I’m doing all the things he wanted me to do, with my diet. Now I don’t take it for granted anymore. I saw him go through all of that, I saw what kind of pain he was in, so whatever I have to do on the track, whatever it is, it’s nothing compared to that.”

Zimmerman, a sociology major, decided to dedicate this season to him, putting his pain into his passion.

He earned Big West Men’s Track Athlete of the Week accolades on April 4 after posting personal-bests in two events at the UCLA Legends Invite on April 1. He recorded a 10.57 in the 100-m and a 21.16 in the 200-m en route to third place honors.

He helped the Titans to a second place finish at the Big West Challenge on April 7 by winning the 200-m with a personal-best 21.12 (first in the Big West). He also placed second in the 400-m (47.69).

“(Beard’s death) opened my eyes to what’s really important. My uncle, he made me want to live my life the way he lived his life. I feel like he lived it with no regrets,” Zimmerman said. “I’ve seen all the love he was getting toward the end of his life, and I want to have that type of impact on people.”

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